Apparatus for the fluid treatment of web material



March 5, 196.8 J. DUNGLER APPARATUS FOR THE FLUID TREATMENT OF WEBMATERIAL Filed July 27, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 H muH mn INVENTOR JULIEN'DUNGLER ATTORNEY J. DUNGLER 3,371,509

APPARATUS FOR THE FLUID TREATMENT OF WEB MATERIAL March 5, 1968 2Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 27, 1965 INVENTOR JULlEN DUNGLER United StatesPatent ()fitice 3,371,509 Patented Mar. 1968 3,371,509 APPARATUS FOR THEFLUID TREATMENT OF WEB MATERIAL Julien Dungler, Basel, Switzerland,assignor to Scholl AG., Zofingen, Switzerland, a joint-stock company ofSwitzerland Filed July 27, 1965, Ser. No. 475,157 5 Claims. (Cl. 68-5)ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A sealing device allowing the advance ofsheet material through an elongated opening in a wall and yet ensuringan air-tight separation of the spaces on either side of said wall; saidsealing device comprises a pair of flat, flexible members which at oneend are secured to said wall by rail means at either side of saidopening and, at the other end, lie flat against opposed faces of saidadvanced sheet; said rail means include a transverse groove to receive arib integral with said flexible members.

The present invention relates to an apparatus for the treatment of webor sheet material produced from, for example, natural or syntheticfibres for the purpose of bleaching, steaming, drying, dyefixing or thelike and in particular concerns seal means allowing passage of saidsheet material through spaces held under diflerent pressure and yetensuring an air-tight insulation between said spaces.

An apparatus in which the present invention may find application ischaracterised in that there is provided an autoclave having at least aninlet chamber and a high pressure chamber the said chambers having guidemeans for the continuous conveyance of said web of material, the highpressure chamber having an inlet and outlet aperture and the inletchamber at least an inlet and outlet aperture for the material whichapertures are provided with air-tight seals which permit the continuousfeed of the material through the apertures.

The invention will be described further, by way of example only Withreference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of an apparatus made in accordancewith the invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of an embodiment of the novel seal means; and

FIG. 3 is a modification of the same embodiment.

As can be seen from FIG. 1 there is provided an autoclave 1, which iscylindrical in form and is provided with three compartments which areseparated from each other by dividing walls 11 and 19.

A first compartment 2 is constructed as an inlet chamber 2 and isprovided internally with insulation 3. The inlet chamber 2 has a slotshaped inlet 4 which is closed by a lip seal 5. The lip seal allows thepassage of a web of material 6 to be treated, from a guide roller 7located outside the autoclave 1. An air atmosphere at a pressureslightly above atmospheric pressure is present in the inlet chamber 2.vThe temperature in the inlet chamber 2 is somewhat lower than in theadjacent chamber 8 which is a high pressure chamber. The high pressurechamber 8 is provided externally with insulation 9 and internally withheating members 10..

The wall 11 divides the inlet chamber 2 from the high pressure chamber8. The wall 11 is provided with a central slot-shaped aperture 12 havinga lip seal 13. A pair of draw rollers 14 is arranged in the highpressure cham- A steam or damp atmosphere is conveniently present in thehigh pressure chamber 8, the pressure being higher than in the inletchamber 2. The actual treatment of the material 6 takes place in thishigh pressure atmosphere.

The autoclave 1 also has an after treatment chamber 18 which isseparated from the high pressure chamber 8 by the wall 19. The wall 19has a slot shaped aperture 20, and a lip seal 21. The interior of theafter treatment chamber 18 is provided with insulation 22. A temperatureslightly lower than that in the high pressure chamber 8 is present inthe after treatment chamber 18. The pressure in chamber 18 correspondssubstantially to that in the inlet chamber 2. A guide roller 23 isprovided in the chamber 18 to guide the material entering through theaperture 20. The after treatment chamber 18 has an outlet 23a with lipseal 24. A pair of draw rollers 25 is provided outside the chamber whichserve to forward the web of material from the autoclave after treatment.

The construction of the lip seals is shown in detail in FIGS. 2 and 3.In FIG. 2 one wall 57 of the autoclave is provided with a slot shapedinlet aperture 58 for the web of material 59 to be treated. The sealitself has two symmetrically constructed and arranged lip-shaped sealpieces 60, 61 which consist of flexible material, for example, plasticsmaterial such as that known by the trade mark Teflon. The seal pieces 60and 61 are of curved form. One end of the piece 61 is secured on thewall 57, metal rails 62 are provided for this purpose. The rails 62 areheld on the wall 57 by means of bolts 63. The wall 57 is provided withthreaded holes into which the bolts 63 engage. The rails 62 each have atransverse groove 64 in which a rib 65 of the seal piece 61 is located.A small clearance space is present between the rail and the seal piece61 so that the seal piece 61 can freely expand and retract whereby onlyslight friction exists between the rib 65 and the surface of thetransverse groove. The piece 60 is held in a similar manner to that justdescribed. The lip shaped seal members consequently lie each with oneend held by the metal rails 62 against the wall 57 whilst the free endof each seal member 60, 61 describes a curve so that the two sealmembers lie in abutment in their end regions and define, over theircurved areas a wedge shaped space 81. The seal members are found toprovide an efficient seal and at the same time the web of material 59can be easily moved between them.

The seal of the outlet 23a is shown in more detail in FIG. 3. Once againtwo lip shaped seal pieces 66, 67 are secured to a wall 70 by means ofmetal rails 68, 69 located in the vicinity of the said outlet 23. Thefree ends of the seal pieces each describe a curve and their free endregions abut. As in the just described seal arrangement a Wedge shapedspace is defined by the curved portions of the seal pieces. In this casethe movement of the web of material 71 takes place in the direction ofthe arrow 72. As can be seen the wedge shaped mouth 73 defined by theseal pieces 76, 77 tapers in the opposite direction to the forwardingmovement. In order to obtain an accurate and practically frictionlessfeed of the web of material additional guide lips 74, 75 of pliablematerial are provided and these are each secured by one end to a sleeve76, 77 and engage with their other ends between the lip shaped seals.The sleeves 76 and 77 are mounted for free rotation on transverse bolts78 and 79. In this way a wedge shaped reception mouth 86 for thematerial 71 is formed with tapers in the forwarding direction.

In this case also an efiicient seal of the outlet 23a is formed andconsequently the web of material is fed through the seal with onlymoderate friction. The high pressure method described affords the greatadvantage that the time used for the treatment of the web of materialcan be considerably decreased. The high pressure method for continuoustreatment has up to now foundered on the impossibility of sealing theinlet and outlet positions. In the manner as proposed, the material isexposed in the through put method first of all only to moderate pressureand subsequently to the high pressure treatment whereafter the furthertreatment of the material takes place in the after treatment chamber sothat no pronounced differences in pressure arise.

What I claim is:

1. In an apparatus having a Wall separating two spaces, an elongatedaperture in said Wall through which sheet material is adapted to beadvanced, seal means aflixed to said wall adjacent said aperture andadapted to engage said sheet material, the improvement in said sealmeans comprising, at least one pair of flat, flexible seal pieces, oneend of each of said pieces being aflixed to said wall by securing meansat either side of said aperture, the other end of each of said sealpieces being bent to lie flat against opposed faces of said sheetmaterial, said seal pieces together defining a wedge-shaped space, saidsecuring means include rail means clamping said one end of each sealpiece against said wall, said rail means including a transverse groovereceiving a rib formed on each of said seal pieces.

2. The improvement according to claim 1 wherein a small clearance isprovided between said rail means and the surface of said seal piecelying therebeneath so that said seal piece may freely expand andcontract whereby only a slight friction arises between said rib and thesurface of said transverse groove.

3. The improvement according to claim 1 wherein said wedge shaped spacetapers opposite to the direction of advance of said sheet material,additional guide lips each having one end extending between each of saidseal pieces and said sheet material, said additional guide lips define afurther Wedge shaped space.

4. The improvement according to claim 3 wherein said further wedgeshaped space tapers in the direction of advance of said sheet material.

5. The improvement according according to claim 3 wherein saidadditional guide lips are each secured to a freely rotatable sleeve.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 890,252 6/ 1908 Thompson.2,220,522 11/1940 Ives. 2,522,071 9/1950 Tait 685 X 2,606,046 8/1952Bonner et a1. 2,873,597 2/1959 Fahringei- 685 3,067,602 12/1962 Brunt685 3,098,260 7/1963 Richeson. 3,213,4'70 10/1965 Yasawa et al. 685 X3,214,945 11/ 1965 Fukuda 68--5 3,242,702 3/1966 Fleissner 685 FOREIGNPATENTS 178,206 4/ 1922 Great Britain. 153,714 4/1962 U.S.S.R.

IRVING BUNEVICH, Primary Examiner.

